landscape,  Plants,  sunsets,  trees

Details in the Shadows

Sunset Along the Colorado Front Range

In looking back over my archives I’ve discovered how many images I underexposed. I’m not sure the reason. I do know that the D300 I shoot now does meter on the underexposed side and I think that’s to keep from blowing out the highlights. The camera has a menu option to fine tune your cameras metering. I have mine set to +1/3 and seems to work for me. And, over the years I’ve learned to expose for the highlights and bring out the details in the shadows during post processing.

Retired. Having fun with photography. Journal daily. Meditate daily. Learning haiku/poetry. Have a love for fountain pens.

4 Comments

  • Bob Dein

    But, here is the other side of the equation. I think that the subject in this photo is the beautifully backlit tree. My eye goes straight to it. Will more detail in the foreground help, or detract from your story? HDR brings out lots of detail, but the amount of information can overwhelm the viewer and confuse the story. Perhaps a slight crop from the bottom to get the horizon into a lower, more pleasing position.
    Caution: I am opinionated. 🙂

    • Monte Stevens

      I understand what you mean and agree it can shift the eyes away from our intended subject. I sure do enjoy those images where the subject catches my attention and then I roam through the image picking up the smaller details but inevitably coming back to the main subject. I do like your idea of cropping some of the image from the bottom. Thanks, Bob!

  • ken bello

    I have my D80 set to -1/3 stop to maintain the highlights better. It’s been this way for me with Nikon meters for a very long time. I think that there is plenty of detail in the shadows but once the highlights are blown, they are usually gone forever.